A Comparative Analysis between Romania and Algeria in Terms of Agriculture and Rural Development

Abstract

The aim of present work is to attempt a comparative analysis of the situation of agriculture and rural development between two countries, Romania in Eastern Europe and Algeria in North Africa. Agriculture and Rural Area in these two countries are still significant - economically and socially - as they are home and livelihoods of millions of people. The agricultural sector can thus claim to be in each country an important link in the economy, though often lag behind other sectors (energy and mining in Algeria, wood industry, engineering industry, SMEs and tourism in Romania). Nevertheless, this sector participates to the consolidation of the national GDP and to the maintenance of rural population, despite the strong migration trend and the profound changes in consumption patterns. In both countries, there is also a strong movement for reform and sweeping changes in agrarian structures and the whole rural economy. But, if at the macroeconomic level there has been a real change (changing from one state manager to a regulatory state, partial or full privatization of agricultural land, trade liberalization and agricultural markets, subsidies reduce, liberalization of producer prices and consumption) in terms of regional development, farm development and rural population, the progress is quite concerning. Thus, the two countries meet the same difficulties in terms of complexity of agrarian structure, fragmentation and cramped conditions of agricultural land, low agricultural production (food, etc.), deficiency, food dependency and rural poverty.